"Coach, are we taking a "sketch" van again?" This was the question asked of me six years ago, as we planned driving to our next tournament several hours away.
As many Penn State golf teams over the years have done, we rented a white van from our University Fleet operations, equipped with four large bench seats, carpeting, heat and air conditioning! What more could you want? Well, as the saying goes, you don't know, until you know!
That particular team decided it was time to upgrade our mode of travel. We started the campaign of raising funds to purchase a beautiful custom Mercedes Sprinter Van. As we drove to our tournaments in our "sketch" van, we made our wish list for the dream vehicle; bucket recliner seats for each player, wireless streaming, TV for movie watching, stereo system with surround sound, lighting for night studying, room for luggage, golf clubs and push carts away from the main cabin, vinyl flooring for easy cleaning with throw rugs, space for a cooler, overhead storage for necessities; napkins, hand warmers, and baggies, back up cameras and my personal favorite heated seats for the coaches in the "cockpit".
We did have on the list, strobe lighting with a disco ball, but decided to cancel that! It took six short months to raise the funds needed to make our purchase. With the help of many alumni, donors, and parents of our team we had our dream vehicle, a navy blue custom sprinter van with a Nittany Lion logo proudly displayed. The seats are made of plush grey leather each with a headrest adorned with a Nittany Lion and foot stool with folding lap table for convenience. The back doors fold out with custom made shelves for the push carts, straps for holding the clubs, and special compartments for shoes and extra practice equipment.
Since the pandemic, whenever possible we have been making our way to tournaments in our Sprinter Van. For my current team, this is the only mode of travel they have known, outside of when we fly. On a recent long trip, I had one player ask, "did you ever consider putting a bathroom in here?" Andy, my assistant coach answered before I had time to reply, "no we did not and will not, since I will be the one cleaning it out." 😊
Suffice it to say we travel in style, watching movies, streaming Netflix, and now with classes online, attending class. The players can study, play games, watch movies, and yes break into song with their favorite playlists piped through the stereo! We did much of the same in the 80's, just with a "boom box" run by batteries that usually ran out halfway into the trip and took turns sleeping on top of the luggage stacked in the last seat.
The Sprinter van truly is our "locker room" on wheels. We store all our equipment, change into our golf spikes, add layers, remove layers, have our team pep talks, fuel our bodies, relax our minds, and sometimes sing out to our favorite tunes. On this past trip to the Big Ten Championships we each read from Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb" in solidarity of the recent news of the day.
Sometimes there is a theme as was the case on our way home, Disney tunes! Mathilde, our player from France, asked if she could play her version of, "Can you feel the love tonight", sung in French of course. I must admit I like the French version even more! Our senior, Megan McLean, was taking her last ride with us, so we all shared some of our favorite Megan "stories" over the years. These are things that hardly ever happen when we fly to tournaments. We must negotiate the airports, try and fit into our rental vans with all our clubs and luggage, and often sit on the plane with each person tuned into their favorite mode of distraction. Outside of some of the late-night driving that is left for my assistant and I, I would take riding in our "locker room on wheels" over any other option. Each team I have coached has their particular playlist of songs they tune into, on our way to the course each day.
I can sum up time with this team with a line from one of their songs called Sunday Best, a team that spent the past year in their "bubble", paying strict attention to what they did and where they went, avoided not once testing positive, a feat not set by many teams, with my favorite line…"feeling blessed…never stressed…"
